Astrosnooker

I haven't heard about this asteroid, but it is quite a regular thing
among the astronomical press to find a new asteroid in an earth-crossing
orbit. I seem to remember a couple of years back that a very large one
was discovered that was due to come close in 2100ish. No-one cares at
the moment because very few of us will be around to know if it hits or
not.

As to hitting the asteroid with nukes to deflect/destroy it... I
wouldn't bother. The idea of trying to deflect a lump of rock weighing
several hundred thousand tons and traveling at several thousand metres
per second is frankly ludicrous. Trying to destroy it is even more
fraught as the (now highly radioactive) bits are still on collision
course. These bits still have the same mass as the original lump and
have therefore got the same total energy. All you do by splitting this
up is destroy a wider area.
The big city destroying missiles of the nuclear states are no longer
armed with single warheads in the 20 megaton range as they used to be.
The new generation (Trident etc) are armed armed with several much
smaller warheads, which do more damage by virtue of hitting a wider
area. The total firepower on a Trident missile is around 2 megatons, but
they have the potential to do far more damage.

Andrew

Wren A said:
[asteroid]
Wrong.

How about an experiment? I will drop a brick on your head from a
height of 5 meters. Alternatively, if you prefer, I'll drop exactly
the same weight, but in the form of sand and grit.

You choose, but I name the time and place (2028, "the earth").

---

Nick Waterman. Network Consultant / Sysadmin - LEOnet
Beating tomorrow's technology into submission.
nick-sig@ Team *AMIGA*!
Managing senior programmers is like herding cats. -- Dave Platt

Before someone mentions air resistance, bear in mind that it's exactly
that resistance that'll cause the dust to burn up, and the chunk
of rock to impact.

What you've missed Nick, is that all that dust and smallish chunks of
rock burning up in our atomosphere, will still be fairly bad news.

On the bright side it would solve the global warming argument.

The idle speculation comes from whether we'd get another ice age,
or mass flooding (dust causes watervapour to precipitate>.

Later,

---

Adam Hattrell, Support, Cimio Ltd. adam@

Does all the sand and grit hit my head at the same time, or are you
going to drop it in a steady stream?


Here comes the science bit, concentrate..

Same mass, same height, therefore same momentum.
Force = dP/dt , so if all the sand hits at the same time, the same force
is applied as if it was solid.

Andrew. (Who just happens to be right about this one)

Previously, Andrew Wren wrote...
Anyone in IFIS who previously fancied Jennifer Aniston will be having
dreams about Andrew Wren tonight (me not included, thank Gawd!).
Hopefully, though, the resulting chunks of asteroid *wouldn't* all hit
at the same time - the explosion would spread them out a bit, and, as
people keep pointing out, would start burning up in the atmosphere.

Anyway, if we launch every single nuclear missile on Earth at the thing,
wouldn't they pretty much evaporate it (or at least some of it)? I
think in that case the choice would be between international cooperation
and an end to the nuclear arms race... or extinction because stupid
people keep saying we really need nukes to keep other races from
launching them (like someone in my class who reads a lot of Tom Clancy)
and thus refuse to waste them on anyone other than the Ruskies.

The choice, gentlemen, is yours...
Deanna Troi would be saying "I sense your confidence... it excites me!"
(Er, not that I'm saying Andrew is anything like Reg Barclay or
anything... ahem...)

Dave Chilard

The point is this: it doesn't matter how many lumps it falls in, be it
one lump the size of a house, or as vapour, it is still going to release
the same amount of energy. You also seem to be forgetting that if you
evaporate something, it doesn't just disappear.
I told you to keep quiet about us, you nearly blew it there... :-)

Andrew

Wren A said:
Just for you, I'll try my hardest to drop it all at once, rather than
actually blowing a brick up and scattering a lot of the little bits in
all sorts of other directions.

Even so, given the choice of a brick-sized cloud of sand, or an actual
brick, I know which one I'd choose.

Sure, the small bits of asteroid will still be a damned nuissance. The
sand in my hair will be a bit annoying too, but it probably won't draw
blood or crack my skull.

Small asteroids DO burn up. Large asteroids START to burn up, but the
burning never actually gets very far into them, so there's still
something left by the time they hit the ground. The same applies to a
lump of coal Vs the same amount of coal ground into fine coal-dust.
That's the force applied to the earth, yes. If you're worried about
the earth getting knocked out of it's orbit, then yes, that's the
same. The earth's orbit will still be deflected just as much if we do
or don't blow it up.

The earth getting knocked out of orbit isn't the problem though. The
problem is far more like the brick/sand one. The sand will still weigh
you down just as much as the brick, but instead of hitting your skull
at one small impact-site, it'll be spread over a wider area, some of
it will most likely MISS you, but even that that hits you will
probably be stopped by your hair and scalp (burnt up in your
atmosphere) rather than breaking through that and damaging your skull
(the earth's surface).
Nick (who is also right).

---

Nick Waterman. Network Consultant / Sysadmin - LEOnet
Beating tomorrow's technology into submission.
nick-sig@ Team *AMIGA*!
"Like putty in your hands" takes on a new and depressing meaning.

On Thu, 12 Mar 1998, Wren A wrote:
Hey, don't forget, if a brick hits you, all the force is absorbed by one
point on your body. If you're sprayed with sand and grit, it's spread over
your body. So the only way you're right is if all the sand and grit hits
you at the same time AND the same place. So it'd basically be a brick...

Ben

*------------------------------------------------------*
| Tomorrow never comes. That's because she's going out |
| with A Week on Thursday. He always comes too soon. |
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O _____________
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< Fish X 3
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Previously Pringlespanion said:
Or a sock full of sand. :-)

Later,

Steve :-)
_
__
(oO)
/||\

On Thu, 12 Mar 1998, Dismukes S wrote:
It would take a mean spirited asteroid to wrap itself up in some material
after fragmentation... Don't think I've met one that can do that.

Ben


*------------------------------------------------------*
| Tomorrow never comes. That's because she's going out |
| with A Week on Thursday. He always comes too soon. |
*------------------------------------------------------*

O _____________
/ \ /3
o / X BAD \ / 3
< Fish X 3
. \__ TRIP / \ 3
/____________/ \3

On Thu, 12 Mar 1998, Wren A wrote:
<snippety snip>
Aaaaaaaaaaargh! Argh! Argh! Argh! You only need a small shift... It's a
mile wide, not a bloody planet! Blow on it long enough, and (in space
momentum is king) you'll shift it sufficiently after, say at a rough
guess, 20 years... Don't be a fool, man.

Ben

*------------------------------------------------------*
| Tomorrow never comes. That's because she's going out |
| with A Week on Thursday. He always comes too soon. |
*------------------------------------------------------*

O _____________
/ \ /3
o / X BAD \ / 3
< Fish X 3
. \__ TRIP / \ 3
/____________/ \3

So, in twenty or so years, you'll still be there with a hairdryer aimed
skywards trying to deflect several millons of tonnes of falling rock. I
like your chances...

Andrew

On Thu, 12 Mar 1998, Wren A wrote:
Obviously you'd have to be close to the meteor. I mean, obviously. I was
just making a point. (If you were that close, of course, you could push
it, but that's beside the point.)

Ben


*------------------------------------------------------*
| Tomorrow never comes. That's because she's going out |
| with A Week on Thursday. He always comes too soon. |
*------------------------------------------------------*

O _____________
/ \ /3
o / X BAD \ / 3
< Fish X 3
. \__ TRIP / \ 3
/____________/ \3